English MA-Exam

Terms

Of an inland soul to sea,Past the housesâ€”past the headlandsâ€”Into deep Eternityâ€”

Bred as we, among the mountains,Can the sailor understandThe divine intoxicationOf the first league out from land?"[entire poem]

Trochaic

Dickinson [130]"These are the days when Birds come back --

A very fewâ€”a Bird or twoâ€”To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies resumeThe oldâ€”old sophistries of Juneâ€”A blue and gold mistake.[...]Last Communion in the the Haze --"[first stanza and excerpt]

Dickinson [214]"I taste a liquor never brewed --

From Tankards scooped in Pearlâ€”Not all the Vats upon the RhineYield such an Alcohol!"[first stanza]

Dickinson [241]"I like a look of Agony,

Because I know it's true --Men do not sham Convulsion,Nor simulate, a Throe --

The Eyes glaze once -- and that is Death --Impossible to feignThe Beads upon the ForeheadBy homely Anguish strung."[entire poem]

Dickinson [258]"There's a certain Slant of light,"

"When it comes, the Landscape listens -- /Shadows -- hold their breath -- /When it goes, 'tis like the Distance /On the look of Death --"[excerpt]

Dickinson [280]"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and froKept treadingâ€”treadingâ€”till it seemedThat Sense was breaking throughâ€”"[...]"As all the Heavens were a Bell,And Being, but an Ear,And I, and Silence, some strange RaceWrecked, solitary, here --"[first stanza and excerpt]

That is no country for old men. The youngIn one another's arms, birds in the trees-- Those dying generations--at their song,The salmon-falls, the mackeral-crowded seas,Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer longWhatever is begotten, born, and dies.Caught in that sensual music all neglectMonuments of unageing intellect.[first stanza][1928]

YeatsTo The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time

I would, before my time to go,Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.[last lines][1893]

YeatsThe Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;There midnightâ€™s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,And evening full of the linnetâ€™s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and dayI hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,I hear it in the deep heartâ€™s core.[entire poem][1893]

Yeats to Ireland in the Coming Times

Ah, faerics, dancing under the moon,A Druid land, a Druid tune!While still I may, I write for youThe love I lived, the dream I knew.From our birthday, until we die,Is but the winking of an eye;And we, our singing and our love,What measurer Time has lit above,And all benighted things that goAbout my table to and fro,Are passing on to where may be,In truthâ€™s consuming ecstasy,No place for love and dream at all;For God goes by with white footfall.[excerpt][1893]

YeatsAdam's Curse

We sat grown quiet at the name of love;We saw the last embers of daylight die,And in the trembling blue-green of the skyA moon, worn as if it had been a shellWashed by timeâ€™s waters as they rose and fellAbout the stars and broke in days and years.

I had a thought for no oneâ€™s but your ears:That you were beautiful, and that I stroveTo love you in the old high way of love;That it had all seemed happy, and yet weâ€™d grownAs weary-hearted as that hollow moon.[last lines][1904]

YeatsNo Second Troy

Why should I blame her that she filled my daysWith misery, or that she would of lateHave taught to ignorant men most violent ways,Or hurled the little streets upon the great.Had they but courage equal to desire?What could have made her peaceful with a mindThat nobleness made simple as a fire,With beauty like a tightened bow, a kindThat is not natural in an age like this,Being high and solitary and most stern?Why, what could she have done, being what she is?Was there another Troy for her to burn?[entire poem][1910]

YeatsSeptember 1913

What need you, being come to sense,But fumble in a greasy tillAnd add the halfpence to the penceAnd prayer to shivering prayer, untilYou have dried the marrow from the bone?For men were born to pray and save:Romantic Irelandâ€™s dead and gone,Itâ€™s with Oâ€™Leary in the grave.[first stanza][1914]

YeatsA Coat

I made my song a coatCovered with embroideriesOut of old mythologiesFrom heel to throat;But the fools caught it,Wore it in the worldâ€™s eyesAs though theyâ€™d wrought it.Song, let them take it,For thereâ€™s more enterpriseIn walking naked.[entire poem][1914]

YeatsThe Fisherman

A man who does not exist,A man who is but a dream;And cried, â€˜Before I am oldI shall have written him onepoem maybe as coldAnd passionate as the dawn.â€™[last lines][1919]

Some burn dam faggots, others may consumeThe entire combustible world in one small roomAs though dried straw, and if we turn aboutThe bare chimney is gone black outBecause the work had finished in that flare.Soldier, scholar, horseman, he,As â€™twere all lifeâ€™s epitome.What made us dream that he could comb grey hair?[Stanza XI][1919]

YeatsThe Wild Swans at Coole

Unwearied still, lover by lover,They paddle in the coldCompanionable streams or climb the air;Their hearts have not grown old;Passion or conquest, wander where they will,Attend upon them still.[fourth of five stanzas][1919]

YeatsAn Irish Airman Foresees His Death

I balanced all, brought all to mind,The years to come seemed waste of breath,A waste of breath the years behindIn balance with this life, this death.[last lines][1919]

YeatsThe Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.[first stanza][1921]

YeatsA Prayer For My Daughter

Nor but in merriment begin a chase,Nor but in merriment a quarrel.O may she live like some green laurelRooted in one dear perpetual place.[excerpt][1921]

YeatsThe Tower

I have prepared my peaceWith learned Italian thingsAnd the proud stones of Greece,Poetâ€™s imaginingsAnd memories of love,Memories of the words of women,All those things whereofMan makes a superhuman,Mirror-resembling dream.[excerpt][1928]

YeatsAmong School Children

III

And thinking of that fit of grief or rageI look upon one child or tâ€™other thereAnd wonder if she stood so at that ageâ€”For even daughters of the swan can shareSomething of every paddlerâ€™s heritageâ€”And had that colour upon cheek or hair,And thereupon my heart is driven wild:She stands before me as a living child.[...] VI

Plato thought nature but a spume that playsUpon a ghostly paradigm of things;Solider Aristotle played the tawsUpon the bottom of a king of kings;World-famous golden-thighed PythagorasFingered upon a fiddle-stick or stringsWhat a star sang and careless Muses heard:Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird.[...]O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,How can we know the dancer from the dance?[last couplet][1928]

YeatsByzantium

The unpurged images of day recede;The Emperorâ€™s drunken soldiery are abed;Night resonance recedes, night walkersâ€™ songAfter great cathedral gong;A starlit or a moonlit dome disdainsAll that man is,All mere complexities,The fury and the mire of human veins.[first stanza]Astraddle on the dolphinâ€™s mire and blood,Spirit after Spirit! The smithies break the flood.The golden smithies of the Emperor!Marbles of the dancing floorBreak bitter furies of complexity,Those images that yetFresh images beget,That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.[last stanza][1933]

YeatsEgo Dominus Tuus

Hic. And yetNo one denies to Keats love of the world;Remember his deliberate happiness.

Ille. His art is happy, but who knows his mind?I see a schoolboy when I think of him,With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window,For certainly he sank into his graveHis senses and his heart unsatisfied,And made - being poor, ailing and ignorant,Shut out from all the luxury of the world,The coarse-bred son of a livery-stable keeperâ€”Luxuriant song.[excerpt][1919]

YeatsCrazy Jane Talks with the Bishop

â€˜A woman can be proud and stiffWhen on love intent;But Love has pitched his mansion inThe place of excrement;For nothing can be sole or wholeThat has not been rent.â€™[last stanza][1933]

YeatsLapis Lazuli

Every discoloration of the stone,Every accidental crack or dent,Seems a water-course or an avalanche,Or lofty slope where it still snowsThough doubtless plum or cherry-branchSweetens the little half-way houseThose Chinamen climb towards, and IDelight to imagine them seated there;There, on the mountain and the sky,On all the tragic scene they stare.One asks for mournful melodies;Accomplished fingers begin to play.Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.[last stanza][1938]

YeatsThe Circus Animals' Desertion

Players and painted stage took all my love,And not those things that they were emblems of.

III

Those masterful images because completeGrew in pure mind, but out of what began?A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slutWho keeps the till. Now that my ladderâ€™s gone,I must lie down where all the ladders startIn the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.[last lines][1939]

YeatsUnder Ben Bulben

No marble, no conventional phrase;On limestone quarried near the spotBy his command these words are cut:

Adjusted in the TombWhen One who died for Truth, was lainIn an adjoining roomâ€”"

Dickinson[465]"I heard a Fly buzzâ€”when I diedâ€”

The Stillness in the RoomWas like the Stillness in the Airâ€”Between the Heaves of Stormâ€”"

Dickinson[508]"Iâ€™m cededâ€”Iâ€™ve stopped being Theirsâ€”

The name They dropped upon my faceWith water, in the country churchIs finished using, now,And They can put it with my Dolls,My childhood, and the string of spools,Iâ€™ve finished threadingâ€”tooâ€”"[first stanza]

Dickinson[564]"My period had come for Prayerâ€”"

"Unbroken by a Settlerâ€”Were all that I could seeâ€”Infinitudeâ€”Hadâ€™st Thou no FaceThat I might look on Thee?"[excerpt]

Dickinson[569]"I reckonâ€”when I count it allâ€”

Firstâ€”Poetsâ€”Then the Sunâ€”Then Summerâ€”Then the Heaven of Godâ€”And thenâ€”the List is doneâ€”"[first stanza]

Dickinson[585]"I like to see it lap the Milesâ€”

And lick the Valleys upâ€”And stop to feed itself at Tanksâ€”And thenâ€”prodigious step"

Dickinson[640]"I cannot live with Youâ€”

It would be Lifeâ€”And Life is over thereâ€”Behind the Shelf"

Dickinson[650]"Pain -- has an Element of Blank --

It cannot recollectWhen it begun -- or if there wereA time when it was not --

It has no Future -- but itself --Its Infinite containIts Past -- enlightened to perceiveNew Periods -- of Pain."[entire poem]

Dickinson[675]"Essential Oilsâ€”are wrungâ€”

The Attar from the RoseBe not expressed by Sunsâ€”aloneâ€”It is the gift of Screwsâ€”

He kindly stopped for meâ€”The Carriage held but just Ourselvesâ€”And Immortality.[...]Since thenâ€”â€™tis Centuriesâ€”and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horsesâ€™ HeadsWere toward Eternityâ€”"

Dickinson[754]"My Life had stoodâ€”a Loaded Gunâ€”

In Cornersâ€”till a DayThe Owner passedâ€”identifiedâ€”And carried Me awayâ€”[...]Though I than Heâ€”may longer liveHe longer mustâ€”than Iâ€”For I have but the power to kill,Withoutâ€”the power to dieâ€”"[first and last stanzas]

Dickinson[985]"The Missing Allâ€”prevented Me

From missing minor Things.If nothing larger than a Worldâ€™sDeparture from a Hingeâ€”Or Sunâ€™s extinction, be observedâ€”â€™Twas not so large that ICould lift my Forehead from my workFor Curiosity."[entire poem]

Dickinson[986]"A narrow Fellow in the Grass"

"But never met this FellowAttended, or aloneWithout a tighter breathingAnd Zero at the Boneâ€”"

Dickinson[1052]"I never saw a Moorâ€”

I never saw the Seaâ€”Yet know I how the Heather looksAnd what a Billow be.

I never spoke with GodNor visited in Heavenâ€”Yet certain am I of the spotAs if the Checks were givenâ€”"[entire poem]

So huge, so hopeless to conceiveAs these that twice befell.Parting is all we know of heaven,And all we need of hell."

PoeA Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avowâ€”You are not wrong, who deemThat my days have been a dream:Yet if hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day,In a vision or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roarOf a surf-tormented shore,And I hold within my handGrains of the golden sandâ€”How few! yet how they creepThrough my fingers to the deepWhile I weepâ€”while I weep!O God! can I not graspThem with a tighter clasp?O God! can I not saveOne from the pitiless wave?Is all that we see or seemBut a dream within a dream?[entire poem]

PoeSonnetâ€”To Science

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.Why preyest thou thus upon the poetâ€™s heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realitiesHow should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wanderingTo seek for treasure in the jewelled skies, Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing!Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car? And driven the Hamadryad from the woodTo seek a shelter in some happier star? Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,The Elfin from the green grass, and from meThe summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

PoeRomance

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,With drowsy head and folded wing,Among the green leaves as they shakeFar down within some shadowy lake,To me a painted paroquetHath beenâ€”a most familiar birdâ€”Taught me my alphabet to sayâ€”To lisp my very earliest wordWhile in the wild wood I did lie,A childâ€”with a most knowing eye.

Of late, eternal Condor yearsSo shake the very Heaven on highWith tumult as they thunder by,I have no time for idle caresThough gazing on the unquiet sky.And when an hour with calmer wingsIts down upon my spirit flingsâ€”That little time with lyre and rhymeTo while awayâ€”forbidden things!My heart would feel to be a crimeUnless it trembled with the strings.[entire poem]

PoeTo Helen

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnightâ€”Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow),That bade me pause before that garden-gate,To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,Save only thee and meâ€”(O Heaven!â€”O God!How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)â€”Save only thee and me. I pausedâ€”I lookedâ€”And in an instant all things disappeared.(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)[excerpts]

PoeIsrafel

The ecstasies above With thy burning measures suitâ€”Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love, With the fervor of thy luteâ€” Well may the stars be mute![excerpt]

PoeThe City in the Sea

No rays from the holy Heaven come downOn the long night-time of that town;But light from out the lurid seaStreams up the turrets silentlyâ€”Gleams up the pinnacles far and freeâ€”Up domesâ€”up spiresâ€”up kingly hallsâ€”Up fanesâ€”up Babylon-like wallsâ€”Up shadowy long-forgotten bowersOf sculptured ivy and stone flowersâ€”Up many and many a marvellous shrineWhose wreathed friezes intertwineThe viol, the violet, and the vine.[excerpt]

PoeThe Sleeper

[first stanza][...]The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleepWhich is enduring, so be deep!Heaven have her in its sacred keep!This chamber changed for one more holy,This bed for one more melancholy,I pray to God that she may lieFor ever with unopened eye,While the dim sheeted ghosts go by![excerpted stanza]

PoeThe Valley of Unrest

Once it smiled a silent dellWhere the people did not dwell;They had gone unto the wars,Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,Nightly, from their azure towers,To keep watch above the flowers,In the midst of which all dayThe red sun-light lazily lay,Now each visitor shall confessThe sad valleyâ€™s restlessness.Nothing there is motionlessâ€”Nothing save the airs that broodOver the magic solitude.Ah, by no wind are stirred those treesThat palpitate like the chill seasAround the misty Hebrides!Ah, by no wind those clouds are drivenThat rustle through the unquiet HeavenUnceasingly, from morn till even,Over the violets there that lieIn myriad types of the human eyeâ€”Over the lilies that waveAnd weep above a nameless grave!They wave:â€”from out their fragrant topsEternal dews come down in drops.They weep:â€”from off their delicate stemsPerennial tears descend in gems.[entire poem]

Poe Sonnet_Silence

There are some qualitiesâ€”some incorporate things, That have a double life, which thus is madeA type of that twin entity which springs From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.[first stanza]

PoeUlalume

The skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisped and sereâ€” The leaves they were withering and sere;It was night in the lonesome October Of my most immemorial year;It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, In the misty mid region of Weirâ€”It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.[first stanza]

ChaucerThe Knight's TaleCharacter--Duke

Theseus, duke of Athens

ChaucerThe Knight's TalePrisoners

Palamon and Arcite

ChaucerThe Knight's TaleThe Duke's Sister-in-Law

Emelye the brighte

ChaucerThe Knight's TaleThe Duke's friend

Perotheus

ChaucerThe Knight's Talethe lovesick's psudonym

Arcite becomes "Philostrate"

ChaucerThe Knight's Talethe three gods

Venus, the goddess of love;Mars the god of war;Diana, the goddess of chastity

ChaucerThe Knight's Talewho prays to whom

Palamon prays to Venus, the goddess of love;Arcite prays to Mars the god of war;Emelye prays to Diana, the goddess of chastity

ChaucerThe Miller's TaleCarpenter

John, an old oaf

ChaucerThe Miller's TaleStudent

Nicholas, who studies astrology

ChaucerThe Miller's TaleWife

Alison, fair and slim

ChaucerThe Miller's TaleSinger

Absolon, jolly

ChaucerThe Miller's Taleconclusion

each man gets his punishment:John is injured and declared insane;Absolon is humiliated;Nicholas is burned.

ChaucerThe Reeve's Talename of the Reeve

Oswald

ChaucerThe Reeve's TaleMiller's name

Simon or Symkyn

ChaucerThe Reeve's Taletwo students

John and Aleyn

ChaucerThe Reeve's TaleMiller's daughter

Molly

ChaucerThe Reeve's Taleconclusion

proud Symkyn gets a beating (from Aleyn), loses his labor, is cuckolded, and has his daughter seduced

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Tale# husbands

5, 3 "good" and 2 "bad"

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talewhy marriage is OK

even if virginity is important, someone must be procreating so that virgins can be created

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talelast husband's name

Jankyn

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talewhy the last husband married

for love, not money

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talename of last husband's book

Valerie and Theofraste

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talelast husband's book's epithet

"book of wicked wives"

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Talelast husband's book's chronicles

Delilah's betrayal of Samson;Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon; etc.

ChaucerThe Wife of Bath's Taleher name

Alisoun

ChaucerThe Wife of Bathher revenge

tears three pages out of the book and punches husband in the face; he punches back which is why she is deaf in one ear

Damian is hiding in a tree at the same time that Pluto, king of the fairies and Queen Proserpina walk through the garden. May climbs the tree and has sex with Damian as Pluto restore January his vision. Persphone gives May a good explanation which is that she had to "struggle with a man in a tree."

ChaucerThe Franklin's Talecharacters

Arviragus, a Breton knight;Dorigen, his wife;Aurelius, a squire;Student of Law at Orleans

ChaucerThe Franklin's Taleplot

Aurelius declared his undying love for Dorigen and she agreed to become his lover if he could clear the rocks near the shore that could endanger the incoming ships that may contain Arvirigus. Aurelius knew that the hopeful task was impossible and thereupon contacted a law student in Orleans who was skilled with the sciences of illusions and other such magic. Aurelius set out to journey to Orleans to meet this student... who had the powers to remove all the rocks from the shore for one week in exchange for one thousand pounds. Aurelius was thrilled with the bargain and told a melancholy Dorigen, who realized that she must either give up her body or her name to Aurelius.

ChaucerThe Franklin's Talerising action

Dorigen cites several famous maidens who gave up their lives for their faith and their lovers, in lieu of giving themselves to other men, such as Lacedaemon, Hasdrubal's wife, and Lucrece.

ChaucerThe Franklin's Taleresolution

Aurelius is so beguiled by Arviragus's honor that he lets Dorigen go free without fulfilling the promise. Aurelius proceeds to pay the law student for his services, who does not force him to pay his debt because of his great respect and honor for his deed. All three men had proven themselves generous and honorable.

ChaucerThe Franklin's Taledenouement

The tale concludes with the open-ended question: Which of the three men is the more chivalrous, honorable, and desirous?

ChaucerThe Pardonersermon topic

Radix malorum est Cupiditas

ChaucerThe Pardoner's Talevices he preaches against

gluttony,drunkenness,gambling,swearing.

ChaucerThe Pardoner's TaleWhat is Death

Eight bushels of gold coins

ChaucerThe Pardoner's Taleafter he tells the tale

the pardoner tries to sell fake relics

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleConstance

The beautiful Christian daughter of the Emperor of Rome, who is sent to Syria to marry the Sultan, and then returned on a boat to Rome after the massacre. She lives on the shores of Cumberland and marries King Alla. She gives birth to Mauritus while there, but is banished by his mother, Lady Donegild. She is reunited with her father and husband at the conclusion of the tale and returns to the shores.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleThe Sultan

The Sultan converts to Christianity to marry Constance, but unfortunately takes her to a foreign land that she does not like.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleThe Sultana

The Sultana is the Sultan's mother who devises the massacre that allows Constance to supposedly return home in lieu of marrying her son.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleThe Warden

The Warden finds Constance on the shores of Northcumberland and brings her to King Alla.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleDame Hermengild

The Warden's wife of Northcumberland who befriends Constance. The Knight murders her and frames Constance for her death.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleKing Alla

Alla is the King of Northcumberland and is currently at war with the Scots. He marries Constance and has a child, Mauritius, with her.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleNorthcumberland

The shore city where Constance is shipwrecked and lives. Alla is the King of this nation, converts to Christianity, and marries Constance.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleNorthcumberland

The shore city where Constance is shipwrecked and lives in the Man of Law's Tale. Alla is the King of this nation, converts to Christianity, and marries Constance.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleLady Donegild

King Alla's mother and maliciously changes the letters of correspondence between the two. She sends Constance and Mauritius away from Northcumberland while Alla is away.

ChaucerMan of Law's TaleMauritius

The son of Alla and Constance and is banished by Lady Donegild with Constance soon after his birth. He later becomes emperor of Rome.

ChaucerPhysician's TaleVirginius

A well-respected knight, murders his daughter, Virginia, when he realizes that she has been dishonored and raped.

ChaucerThe Physician's TaleVirginia

The maiden daughter of Virginius who allows her fairness and beauty to lead her to trouble. Appius lusts after her and schemes to have her raped.

ChaucerThe Physician's TaleAppius

The judge who manipulates the tale with others. He allows Claudius to claim that Virginius stole a slave and furthermore claims that the slave is his daughter, Virginia. When his chicanery is revealed, he is put in jail where he commits suicide.

ChaucerThe Physician's TaleClaudius

The churl who takes the young maiden from her father.

ChaucerSecond Nun's TaleSecond Nonne (Nun)

The secretary of the first nun. Her short tale chronicles the history and life of Saint Cecilia.

ChaucerSecond Nun's Taleher tale

Once purged of his sins, Valerian returns home to find Cecilia with the angel. He has a crown of flowers that supposedly only the pure and chaste can see. Cecilia's brother, Tibertius, is summoned and views the floral crown. The angel gives it to Valerian and Tibertius and they proceed to see Urban once more. Before they left, the angel urges Tibertius to cease his idol worshipping.

The two men meet with Urban once again and wonder how Cecilia can worship three gods, to which he responds that they are the Trinity - each a part of the one Christian god. The two men are Christened and then sent off to the prefect, Almachius, for execution. One of the sergeants, Maximus, claimed that he saw their spirits ascending to heaven during their executions, and he was then beaten to death. Cecilia buried him with her two men and was therefore summoned by Almachius. She appeared collected and presentable, without fear, and condemned his worship of idols. Almachius planned to have her executed by boiling, however, she suffered no burns. He then planned to have her executed by swordplay; however, again, after three slashes she suffered no mortal wounds. She was left to die by the executioner as Christians attempt to save her. She eventually dies and is declared a saint by Pope Urban.

ChaucerThe Nun's Priest's TaleChanticleer

A rooster on the farm of the old lady who believed that dreams were a prediction of reality. Chanticleer is almost eaten by a fox, when Pertelote squawks out loud and everyone is saved.

ChaucerThe Nun's Priest's TalePertelote

Chanticleer's favorite hen who did not believe that dreams were a reflection of reality. Instead, Pertelote believed that they were signs of ill humor. Pertelote saves Chanticleer from getting eaten by a fox.

ChaucerThe Nun's Priest's Taleconclusion

Chanticleer and Pertelote talk of many famous sayings and proverbs until they realize that men and women are perfect for one another. Chanticleer then goes in the morning to search for herbs, where a fox grabs him. Pertelote squawked loudly, alerting the old woman who chased the fox away saving Chanticleer. The tale ends with everyone alive and safe.

ChaucerThe Parson's TaleParson

A good man of the cloth who is devoted to God and his congregation. He is respected and blessed and tells a tale of sin existing in multiple faces. As one of the holy and moralistic men of the pilgrimage, the Parson represents the Church that is not completely dishonest.

the warrior band of retainers that are bound to the king, in OE this band is called the werod.

Elegy

features include meditation on the mutability of the world and its institutions and a deep sense of loss or mental anguish

Heroic Poetry

they dramatize a situation of heroic proportions using traditional diction. This is a mode of poetry that casts certain situations in a particular light, which can be used for propaganda or to familiarize abstruse texts (such as the Bible).

The Wandererâ€”Themes

â€¢Transitory nature of the worldâ€”notice the ubi sunt motif near the end in which the wanderer asks where the things of this world have gone. This is a major motif probably initiated by Isidore of Sevilleâ€¢The quasi-stoic injunction to silence that is a â€œmost noble custom for earlsâ€â€”this is one of the main ways that the wanderers problem is dramatizedâ€”he is an earl and must remain silent, but in this changing world with those earls all dead, he is forced to consider what the meaning of that custom really is in the grand scheme of things.â€¢Destruction of the institutions of the transitory worldâ€”what did you think that gold and that sweet warm hall were going to last forever. Havenâ€™t you ever heard of Matthew 6:19-21 (â€œDo not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and stealâ€¦â€).â€¢Note the loneliness also, a dramatic way to explore the loss of the king and comitatus as well as to situate those customs and institutions in a grand historical framework (from Christianity).â€¢Dreams and visions abound as the wanderer thinks about his lord or imagines a phantasmagoria of destruction, decay, violence and the overall weakness of all that humanity can muster up against the forces of time and fate.â€¢Fateâ€”what happens to us all, called wyrd in OE. This concept of the thing that happens (this is the etymological significance of wyrd) is viewed as almost an inscrutable force of nature (though it is subject to God).

The Seafarerâ€”Themes

â€¢Contrasts land/stability and the sea/instability... worthless in the face of the only real stability which is in Heaven.â€¢The seasons and weather are also shown to contrast (and are quite picturesquely described). This contrast is also nothing when compared to heaven.â€¢Speaking of contrast, there is a contrasting structure here in which the poem breaks up roughly into two halves, a â€œtestimonialâ€ monologue type discourse and a homiletic style discourse.â€¢Visions/Dreams also important here.â€¢As in Beowulf, praise of heroic worth is shown to be an important element of society here (though worldly praise is proved worthless in the face of heavenly praise).

Ofermod

overweening pride of Satan and it is used in this poem as an explanation of why Byrhtnoth decided to let the Vikings cross the causeway

Faege

This word means â€œfatedâ€ as in youâ€™re fated to die.

Elegy Written In A Country ChurchyardThomas Gray

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,The lowing herd wind slowly oâ€™er the lea,The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,And leaves the world to darkness and to me.[first stanza]

The Progress of PoesyThomas Gray

Manâ€™s feeble race what ills await!Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,Disease, and Sorrowâ€™s weeping train,And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate![...]Nor second he, that rode sublimeUpon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy,The secrets of thâ€™ Abyss to spy.[...]Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering oâ€™er,Scatters from her pictured urnThoughts that breathe, and words that burn.[excerpts]

The BardThomas Gray

[...]â€œWeave, the warp! and weave, the woof!The winding sheet of Edwardâ€™s race:Give ample room and verge enoughThe characters of hell to trace.[...]Ye towers of Julius, Londonâ€™s lasting shame,With many a foul and midnight murder fed,Revere his consortâ€™s faith, his fatherâ€™s fame,And spare the meek usurperâ€™s holy head.Above, below, the rose of snow,Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:The bristled Boar in infant-goreWallows beneath the thorny shade.Now, brothers, bending oâ€™er the accursed loom,Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.â€œEdward, lo! to sudden fate(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.)Half of thy heart we consecrate.(The web is wove. The work is done.)[...]All hail, ye genuine kings! Britanniaâ€™s issue, hail![...]He spoke, and headlong from the mountainâ€™s heightDeep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.[last lines]

DrydenAbsalom and Achitophelcharacters

Monmouth = Absalom, the beloved boy,Charles = David (who also had some philandering),Shaftesbury = AchitophelBuckingham, an old enemy of Dryden's = Zimri, the unfaithful servant.

DrydenAbsalom and Achitophelsatire

The poem places most of the blame for the rebellion on Shaftesbury and makes Charles a very reluctant and loving man who has to be king before father.

DrydenAbsalom and Achitophelopening lines

In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin,Before polygamy was made a sin;When man, on many, multipliâ€™d his kind,Ere one to one was cursedly confinâ€™d:When Nature prompted, and no Law deniâ€™dPromiscuous use of concubine and bride;Then, Israelâ€™s monarch, after Heavenâ€™s own heart,His vigorous warmth did variously impartTo wives and slaves: and, wide as his command,Scatterâ€™d his Makerâ€™s image through the land.[first lines]

DrydenAbsalom and Achitophelquote--fools

Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade.

DrydenAbsalom and Achitophelquote--fruit

Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be,Or gatherâ€™d ripe, or rot upon the tree.

DrydenAbsalom and Achitphelquote--people and kings

If not; the people have a right supremeTo make their kings; for kings are made for them.[...]Then kings are slaves to those whom they command,And tenants to their peopleâ€™s pleasure stand.

DrydenAbsalom and Achitphelquote--Sanhedrin

Where Sanhedrin and Priest enslavâ€™d the nation,And justifiâ€™d their spoils by inspiration:[...]â€˜Gainst form and order they their powâ€™r employ;Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.But far more numerous was the herd of such,Who think too little, and who talk too much.

Achillea (dignified version of Menelaus)Philoctete (a version of divine Homer himself)Hector (Paris's counterpart)OmerosHelen "not a cause . . . only a name / for a local wonder." Dennis Plunkett (the softhearted colonizer of a town "he had come to love" (2.22.3))Maud PlunkettMa Kilman"colonial paternalism inherent in their agendas for Helen"allusion to Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass should elicit the heart of Dadaist "aleatory," "chance" or "found art" theory. It is this anti-art technique that underlies Walcott's non-linear plotting of Omeros.

Sethe, protagonistDenverBeloved, embodied spirit of Sethe's murdered daughterPaul D, Sethe's lover "tin tobacco box" of his heartâ€œ[t]his is not a story to pass on.â€White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle."-- Stamp Paid[Margaret Garner]

John Harmon, the absent centre of the story Bella Wilfer, a mercenary young person John Rokesmith, a Secretary Nicodemus (Noddy) Boffin, aka the Golden Dustman, probably based on Henry Dodd, a ploughboy who made his fortune removing London's rubbish Mrs Boffin, his wife Lizzie Hexam, a waterman's daughter Charley Hexam, her brother Mortimer Lightwood, a young lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, a dilettante lawyer Jenny Wren, a dolls' dressmaker Mr Riah, manager of a money-lending business Bradley Headstone, a school teacher Silas Wegg, a literary man and seller of ballads Mr Venus, a taxidermist and articulator of bones Mr Podsnap, an extremely pompous, self-complacent man Mrs Podsnap, his wife Georgiana Podsnap, their daughter Mr Inspector, a police officer Mr Fledgeby, often referred to as Fascination Fledgeby, a young friend of the Lammles

[sonnet]A sudden blow: the great wings beating stillAbove the staggering girl, her thighs caressedBy the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.[first stanza][...]A shudder in the loins engenders thereThe broken wall, the burning roof and towerAnd Agamemnon dead.[excerpt][1923]

The Alchemist1610Characters

Subtle - The Alchemist.Face - The house-keeper, otherwise Lovewit's butler Jeremy.Dol Common - The conspirator of Subtle and Face.

Lovewit - The owner of the house in which Subtle sets up his work.Dapper - A Lawyer's Clerk, who wants Subtle to help him in gambling.Abel Drugger - A Tobacco merchant, who wants Subtle to assist him, through magic in setting up an apothecaries shop. Sir Epicure Mammon - A Knight, who wants Subtle's help in making him wealthy.Tribulation Wholesome - A Pastor of Amsterdam.Ananias - A Deacon, colleague of Tribulation. These religious brothers want Subtle's help in minting money to help establish Puritanism in Britain.Kastril - The angry boy, recently come into an inheritance. He wants Subtle's help in aiding him to win fights.Dame Pliant - A widow, sister of Kastril, wants to know her fortune in marriage.Pertinax Surly - A Gamester, who sees through the deceptions.

Richard II1595Characters

King Richard IIHenry Bolingbroke Duke of HerfordJohn of Gaunt Duke of LancasterEdmund of Langley Duke of YorkHenry Percy Earl of NorthumberlandQueen IsabelLord SalisburySir Stephen Scroope - A nobleman loyal to Richard. He brings Richard the bad news of Bolingbroke's invasion when Richard returns from Ireland.

"La Bell Dame Sans Merci"Keats

Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,Alone and palely loitering;The sedge is wither'd from the lake,And no birds sing.[first lines]

"The Lady of Shalott"Tennyson

She left the web, she left the loom,She made three paces thro' the room,She saw the water-lily bloom,She saw the helmet and the plume,She look'd down to Camelot.Out flew the web and floated wide;The mirror crack'd from side to side;"The curse is come upon me," criedThe Lady of Shalott.[climax]

"Lucy I-V"Wordsworth

Strange fits of passion have I known:And I will dare to tell,But in the lover's ear alone,What once to me befell.

When she I loved look'd every dayFresh as a rose in June,I to her cottage bent my way,Beneath an evening moon.[first lines][Lucy V]A slumber did my spirit seal;I had no human fears:She seem'd a thing that could not feelThe touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;She neither hears nor sees;Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course,With rocks, and stones, and trees.[entire Lucy V]

"Mariana"Tennyson

She only said, 'My life is dreary,He cometh not,' she said;She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,I would that I were dead!'[refrain]

"Mont Blanc"Shelley

The everlasting universe of thingsFlows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves,[first couplet]

Dizzy Ravine! and when I gaze on theeI seem as in a trance sublime and strangeTo muse on my own separate phantasy,My own, my human mind, which passivelyNow renders and receives fast influencings.[excerpt]

"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"Wordsworth

There was a time when meadow. grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sight,To mne did seemApparelled in celestial light[first lines]

See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,Some fragment from his dream of human life,Shaped by himself with newly-learn'd artA wedding or a festival,A mourning or a funeral;[middle lines]

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,To me the meanest flower that blows can giveThoughts that do often lie to deep for tears.[last lines]

Gulliver's Travels

"...the touchstone through which we see that Gulliver is no longer a reliable and objective commentator on the reality he sees but, rather, a skewed observer of a reality colored by private delusions."

Don Pedro de Mendez

On First Looking Into Chapman's Homerby John Keats

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;Round many western islands have I beenWhich bards in fealty to Apollo hold.Oft of one wide expanse had I been toldThat deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;Yet did I never breathe its pure sereneTill I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold;Then felt I like some watcher of the skiesWhen a new planet swims into his ken;Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyesHe star'd at the Pacific-and all his menLook'd at each other with a wild surmise-Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

The Solitary ReaperWilliam Wordsworth

Behold her, single in the field,Yon solitary Highland Lass![First lines]The music in my heart I bore,Long after it was heard no more.[Last lines]

TithonusAlfred Lord Tennyson

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,And after many a summer dies the swan.[First lines]Immortal age beside immortal youth,[Excerpt]I earth in earth forget these empty courts,And thee returning on thy silver wheels.[Last lines]

To AutumnJohn Keats

ISeason of mists and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;[First lines]The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.[Last lines]

UlyssesAlfred Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,By this still hearth, among these barren crags,Matched with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race,That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.[First lines]I am become a name;[Excerpt]Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.[Last lines]

Tintern AbbeyWordsworth

Five years have past; five summers, with the lengthOf five long winters! and again I hearThese waters, rolling from their mountain-springsWith a soft inland murmur.[First lines]Of unremembered pleasure:[Excerpt]Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,Their colours and their forms, were then to meAn appetite; a feeling and a love,That had no need of a remoter charm,By thought supplied, not any interestUnborrowed from the eye.[Excerpt]And this green pastoral landscape, were to meMore dear, both for themselves and for thy sake![Last lines]

My Last DuchessRobert Browning

Thatâ€™s my last duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive. I callThat piece a wonder, now: FrÃ Pandolfâ€™s handsWorked busily a day, and there she stands.[First lines]A heart- how shall I say?- too soon made glad,[Excerpt]She thanked menâ€”good! but thankedSomehowâ€”I know not howâ€”as if she rankedMy gift of a nine-hundred-years-old nameWith anybodyâ€™s gift.[Excerpt]Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me![Last lines]

The Bishop Orders His TombRobert Browning

Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity!Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back?[First lines]dying by degrees,[Excerpt]Old Gandolfâ€”at me, from his onion-stone,As still he envied me, so fair she was![Last lines]

â€œChilde Roland to the Dark Tower Cameâ€Robert Browning (1812â€“89)

My first thought was, he lied in every word, That hoary cripple, with malicious eye[First lines]Which, while I forded,â€”good saints, how I fearâ€™d To set my foot upon a dead manâ€™s cheek, Each step, or feel the spear I thrust to seek For hollows, tangled in his hair or beard! â€”It may have been a water-rat I spearâ€™d, 125 But, ugh! it sounded like a babyâ€™s shriek.[Excerpt]Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, And blew â€œChilde Roland to the Dark Tower came.â€[Last lines]

Fra Lippo LippiRobert Browning

1I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave! 2You need not clap your torches to my face.[First lines]112But, mind you, when a boy starves in the streets 113Eight years together, as my fortune was, 114Watching folk's faces to know who will fling 115The bit of half-stripped grape-bunch he desires, 116And who will curse or kick him for his pains,-- 117Which gentleman processional and fine,[Excerpt] 179Your business is not to catch men with show, 180With homage to the perishable clay, 181But lift them over it, ignore it all, 182Make them forget there's such a thing as flesh. 183Your business is to paint the souls of men-- 184Man's soul, and it's a fire, smoke . . . no, it's not . . . 185It's vapour done up like a new-born babe-- 186(In that shape when you die it leaves your mouth) 187It's . . . well, what matters talking, it's the soul! 188Give us no more of body than shows soul![Excerpt]224You should not take a fellow eight years old 225And make him swear to never kiss the girls.[Excerpt]The street's hushed, and I know my own way back, 392Don't fear me! There's the grey beginning. Zooks![Last lines]

Paradise LostMilton

Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey

Dover Beach Arnold

The sea is calm tonight.[first line]

Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night.[last lines]'pathetic fallacy'

IS it so small a thing To have enjoy'd the sun, To have lived light in the spring, To have loved, to have thought, to have done; To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes;[first stanza]

I say, Fear not! life still Leaves human effort scope. But, since life teems with ill, Nurse no extravagant hope. Because thou must not dream, thou need'st not then despair. [last stanza]

LamiaKeats

UPON a time, before the faery broods Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods,[first lines]

BeowulfCharacters

Beowulf - The protagonist of the epic, Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. He is the model of the perfect warrior, â€œeven tempered, prudent and resoluteâ€ (117). In his youth, he personifies all of the best values of the heroic culture. In his old age, he proves a wise and effective ruler.

King Hrothgar - The king of the Danes. Hrothgar enjoys military success and prosperity until Grendel terrorizes his realm. A wise and aged ruler, Hrothgar represents a different kind of leadership from that exhibited by the youthful warrior Beowulf. He is a father figure to Beowulf and a model for the kind of king that Beowulf becomes.

Grendel's mother - â€œThat swamp-thing from hell/ the tarn-hagâ€ (105). She comes to seek revenge for the death of her son.

The dragon (the wyrm ) - An ancient, powerful serpent, the dragon guards a horde of treasure in a hidden mound.

The Changeling1622Middleton

Beatrice-Joanna,, the beautiful daughter of Vermandero, a wealthy government official.De Flores, her strange partner in crime, Vermanderoâ€™s servant. Vermandero, Beatrice-Joannaâ€™s father, the governor of the castle of Alicante. Alsemero, a Spanish noblemanAlonzo de Piracquo, Beatrice-Joannaâ€™s husbandTomaso, Alonzoâ€™s brotherJasperino, Alsemeroâ€™s servantDiaphanta, Beatrice-Joannaâ€™s waiting womanAlibius, a jealous old doctor Lollio, his servant, who is responsible for keeping order among the inmates of the houseIsabella, Alibiusâ€™ young wifePedro, Antonioâ€™s friend

he Changeling1622Middletonâ€œchangeling's" three definitions

a changeable person, a person surreptitiously exchanged for another, and an idiot.

O these wakeful wounds of thine!----Are they mouths? or are they eyes?Be they mouths, or be they eyne,----Each bleeding part some one supplies.[first stanza]

To the Noblest and Best of Ladies, the Countess of DenbighCrashaw

What Heaven-entreated heart is this, Stands trembling at the gate of bliss?[first lines]

What magic bolts, what mystic barsMaintain the will in these strange wars!What fatal, yet fantastic bandsKeep the free heart from its own hands![excerpt]

O dart of Love! arrow of light!O happy you, if it hit right![excerpt]

'Tis cowardice that keeps this field,And want of courage not to yield.Yield then, O yield, that Love may winThe fort at last, and let life in;Yield quickly, lest perhaps you proveDeath's prey, before the prize of Love.This fort of your fair self, if't be not won, He is repulsed indeed, but you're undone.[last lines]

Mac FlecknoeDryden

All human things are subject to decay,And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey:This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, youngWas call'd to empire, and had govern'd long:In prose and verse, was own'd, without disputeThrough all the realms of Non-sense, absolute.[first lines]

Where sold he bargains, whip-stitch, kiss my arse,Promis'd a play and dwindled to a farce?[excerpt]

The mantle fell to the young prophet's part,With double portion of his father's art.[last lines]

Stanza 7Orpheus could lead the savage race;And trees unrooted left their place;Sequacious of the lyre:But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder high'r;When to her organ, vocal breath was giv'n,An angel heard, and straight appear'dMistaking earth for Heav'n.[last lines]

To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young Lady Mrs. Anne KilligrewDryden

Thou youngest virgin-daughter of the skies,Made in the last promotion of the Blest;Whose palms, new pluck'd from Paradise,In spreading branches more sublimely rise,Rich with immortal green above the rest:Whether, adopted to some neighbouring star,Thou roll'st above us, in thy wand'ring race,Or, in procession fix'd and regular,Mov'd with the Heavens' majestic pace:Or, call'd to more superior bliss,Thou tread'st, with seraphims, the vast abyss.[first lines]

O Gracious God! How far have weProfan'd thy Heav'nly gift of poesy?Made prostitute and profligate the Muse,Debas'd to each obscene and impious use,Whose harmony was first ordain'd aboveFor tongues of angels, and for hymns of love?[excerpt]

There thou, sweet saint, before the choir shall go,As harbinger of Heav'n, the way to show,The way which thou so well hast learn'd below.[last lines]

The Battle of Maldon

Anlaf, leader of the VikingsByrhtnoth Essex coastofermode -- excessive courageGodric (â€œOdda's child first to flightâ€) and his brothers-- flee on Byrhtnoth's horse